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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 4:3 - 4:3
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1Ch 4:3 and 1Ch 4:4 contain notices of the descendants of Hur. The first words of the third verse, “these, father of Etam, Jezreel,” have no meaning; but the last sentence of the second verse suggests that מִשְׁפְּחֹות should be supplied, when we read, “and these are the families of (from) Abi-Etam.” The lxx and Vulgate have עיטם בני אלה, which is also to be found in several codices, while other codices read בני אלה אבי עיטם. Both readings are probably only conjectures. Whether עיטם אבי is to be taken as the name of a person, or appellatively, father = lord of Etam, cannot be decided. עֵיטָם is in 1Ch 4:32, and probably also in Jdg 15:8, Jdg 15:11, the name of a town of the Simeonites; and in 2Ch 11:6, the name of a little town in the highlands of Judah, south of Jerusalem. If עיטם be the name of a place, only the lest named can be here meant. The names Jezreel, Ishma, and Idbash denote persons as progenitors and head of families or branches of families. For יִזְרְעֶאל as the name of a person, cf. Hos 1:4. That these names should be those of persons is required by the succeeding remark, “and their sister Hazelel-poni.” The formation of this name, with the derivative termination i, seems to express a relationship of race; but the word may also be an adjective, and as such may be a proper name: cf. Ew. §273, e.
1Ch 4:4
Penuel, in Gen 32:31., Jdg 8:8, name of a place in the East-Jordan land, as here, and in Jdg 8:25 the name of a man. Gedor is, we may suppose, the town of that name in the mountains of Judah, which is still to be found in the ruin Jedur (see on Jos 15:58). Penuel is here called father of Bedor, while in 1Ch 4:18 one Jered is so called, whence we must conclude that the inhabitants of Gedor were descended from both. Ezer (Help) occurs in 1Ch 7:21; 1Ch 12:9; Neh 3:19, of other men; father of Hushah, i.e., according to the analogy of Abi-Gedor, also the name of a place not elsewhere mentioned, where the hero Sibbecai had his birth, 1Ch 11:29; 2Sa 23:27. Those thus named in 1Ch 4:3 and 1Ch 4:4 are sons of Hur, the first-born of Ephratah (1Ch 2:19), the father of Bethlehem. The inhabitants of Bethlehem then, according to this, were descended from Hur through his son Salma, who is called in 1Ch 2:51 father of Bethlehem. The circumstance, too, that in our 1Ch 4:3, 1Ch 4:4 other names of persons are enumerated as descendants of Hur than those given in 1Ch 2:50-55 gives rise to no discrepancy, for there is no ground for the supposition that in 1Ch 2:50-55 all the descendants of Hur have been mentioned.